Hand ,  John?. 
Illinois  iAn 


TORICAi  SURVEY 


MILITARY    TRACT    PAPERS.  No.    1. 


ILLI  N  OIS 

AN  ADDRESS  BY 

HONORABLE  JOHN  P.  HAND 

JUSTICE  OF  THE  SUPREME  COURT 

BEFORE  THE  TRUSTEES,  FACULTY,  AND 

STUDENTS  OF  THE  WESTERN 

ILLINOIS  STATE  NORMAL 

SCHOOL, 

MONDAY,  DECEMBER  3,  1906. 


WITH    A    MAP. 


ILLINOIS    STATE   REFORMATORY     PRINT. 


0,  OF  til.  IIB. 


HONORABLE  JOHN  P.  HAND 


, 


H  Wi 

ILLINOIS. 


*•    LADIES  AND  GENTLEMEN: 

I  am  pleased  to  meet  you  on  this,  the  eighty-eighth,  an- 
niversary of  the  admission  of  Illinois  as  a  State  into  the  Union. 

In  what  I  shall  say  this  evening,  I  will  only  call  your  at- 
tention to  a  few  of  the  prominent  landmarks  which  have 
been  left  along  the  highway  which  the  people  of  Illinois  have 
traveled  in  the  building  of  that  great  State,  leaving  you  at 
your  leisure  to  fill  in  the  details  of  the  brief  outline  of  its  his- 
tory which  I  shall  present  to  you,  and  if  I  shall  succeed  in 
more  fully  arousing  your  interest  in  the  study  of  the  subject, 
I  will  have  accomplished  all  I  could  hope  to  accomplish  in 
one  evening. 

The  discovery,  early  settlement  and  development  of  the 
State  of  Illinois,  are  attractive  and  inspiring  subjects  for 
study,  and  the  young  man  or  woman  who  desires  to  acquire 
a  thorough  knowledge  of  the  history  of  that  great  common- 
wealth and  is  so  fortunate  as  to  be  a  student  in  an  institution 
of  learning  founded  and  fostered  by  the  State,  where  able  in- 
structors are  provided  and  an  ample  library  furnished,  is  to 
to  be  congratulated. 

The  fourth  centennial  of  the  discovery  of  the  Western 
Continent  was  celebrated  upon  Illinois  soil  thirteen  years 
ago,  by  the  civilized  and  semi-civilized  nations  of  two  con- 
tinents, whose  peoples  assembled  on  the  shores  of  the  great 
lake  which  washes  its  north-eastern  boundary,  to  pay  hom- 
age to  the  progress  made  by  the  Anglo-Saxon  race  in  the 
United  States  in  four  hundred  years. 

When  Columbus,  with  his  hardy  band  of  explorers,  at 
the  close  of  a  tempestuous  voyage,  knelt  upon  and  kissed 
the  soil  of  San  Salvador,  upon  that  island  and  upon  the  ad- 


joining  mainland  he  saw  only  evidences  of  savage  life.     The 

character         native  tribes  then  occupying  North  America  were  wholly  un- 

settiers  civilized  and  the  colonization  of  the  territory  now  within  the 

limits  of  the  United  States  was  not  attempted  by  civilized 

man  for  more  than  a  century  subsequent  to  the  discovery  of 

the  Western  Continent. 

The  North  American  continent  was  settled  by  the  Span- 
iards, the  English  and  the  French.  The  Spaniards  took  pos- 
session of  Mexico  and  Florida,  the  English  of  Virginia  and 
New  England,  and  the  French,  the  country  tributary  to  the 
St.  Lawrence  and  the  Great  Lakes. 

The  Spaniards  were  avaricious,  cruel  and  blood-thirsty. 

They  overran  the  country  in  search  of  gold  and  the  fountain 

The  of  immortal  youth,  and  devastation,  rapine  and  murder  stalk- 

Spaniards 

ed  along  their  pathway.  De  Soto  discovered  the  Mississippi 
in  1541;  St.  Augustine  was  founded  in  1565,  and  in  1781  Span- 
ish soldiers  marched  from  St.  Louis,  the  capital  of  Upper 
Louisiana,  across  Illinois,  to  the  mouth  of  the  St.  Joseph 
river,  in  Michigan,  where  they  destroyed  the  English  fort 
located  at  that  point,  and  then  hurriedly  took  shelter  beyond 
the  Mississippi  river,  in  territory  controlled  by  Spain.  The 
Spaniards  did  not  permanently  attach  themselves  to  the  soil, 
yet  they  laid  boastful  claim  not  only  to  Florida,  but  to  the 
entire  Mississippi  valley,  including  the  Illinois  country,  and 
at  the  close  of  the  Revolutionary  war  joined  the  French  in 
an  attempt  to  confine  the  American  Republic  to  the  territory 
east  of  the  Alleghany  mountains,  and  later  sought  to  prevent 
the  free  navigation  of  the  Mississippi  river  by  the  inhabit- 
ants of  Tennessee,  Kentucky  and  the  Northwest  Territory. 
The  power  of  the  Spaniards  in  North  America  east  of  the 
Mississippi  river  was,  however,  soon  broken,  and  early  in  the 
last  century  they  awoke  from  their  dream  of  conquest  and 
abandoned  their  efforts  to  establish  an  empire  in  the  Missis- 


3 

sippi  valley,  and  the  title  to  the  vast  territory  over  which 
they  had  marched  and  counter-marched,  on  both  sides  of  the 
Mississippi  river,  vested  in  their  more  steadfast,  English 
speaking  neighbors,  which  territory  has  since  been  cut  into 
numerous  great  States  of  the  American  Republic. 

The  English  came  to  America,  not  in  search  of  gold,  but 
to  acquire  homes  for  themselves  and  their  posterity,  and  to 
establish  in  the  New  World  a  new  nation  where  man  might  The 

English 

worship  God  according  to  the  dictates  of  his  own  conscience 
and  enjoy  civil  and  political  liberty.  They  brought  with  them 
and  planted  upon  the  Atlantic  Coast,  the  common  law,  the 
richest  gift  of  the  English  people  to  the  American  Colonies, 
which  today  forms  the  basis  of  the  jurisprudence  of  Illinois 
and  of  the  other  States  of  the  Union,  save  one.  The  Eng- 
lish people  were  nation  builders,  and  while  their  progress 
westward  was  slow,  they  were  destined  in  time  to  extend  their 
language,  influence,  customs,  laws  and  civilization  over  that 
vast  territory  which  extends  from  the  Atlantic  ocean,  upon 
the  east,  to  the  Pacific  ocean,  on  the  west;  and  from  the  Great 
Lakes  of  the  north,  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  upon  the  south. 
The  French  came  to  America  to  build  a  New  France. 
They  were  not  cruel,  nor  blood-thirsty,  like  the  Spaniards,  The 

French 

and  instead  of  waging  a  war  of  extermination  against  the  In- 
dians, sought  to  proselyte  them  to  their  faith.  They  were  not 
only  willing  to  barter  a  blanket  or  a  string  of  colored  beads 
to  their  red  brothers  for  their  peltries,  but  they  gladly  ac- 
cepted their  hospitality  and  protection,  and  often  shared 
their  wigwams  and  made  their  daughters  and  sisters  their 
wives.  They  did  not  cultivate  the  soil,  but  preferred  to  hunt, 
trap,  and  fish,  in  company  with  the  native  tribes,  and  at  a 
time  when  the  English  were  raising  corn  and  cultivating  to- 
bacco along  the  eastern  slope  of  the  Alleghanies,  they  were 
canoeing  upon  the  streams  and  penetrating  the  trackless  for- 


ests  in  the  regions  of  the  Great  Lakes,  upon  whose  shores 
their  priests  established  missions  and  their  merchants  erect- 
ed trading  posts. 

In  May,  1673,  as  a  result  of  the  early  occupation  of  the 
Lake  country  by  the  French  Jesuit  priests,  hunters,  traders 
and  trappers,  two  young  Frenchmen,  Joliet,  a  merchant,  and 
Marquette,  a  Jesuit  priest,  in  company  with  five  oars-men, 
left  the  mission  at  St.  Ignace,  on  the  Straits  of  Mackinac,  in 

Th* 

Jesuits  two  boats,  under  a  commission  from  the  Intendant  of  New 

France,  to  explore  the  west,  and,  if  possible,  to  find  the 
Great  River  which  it  was  rumored  lay  from  the  Straits  to- 
ward the  setting  sun.  They  crossed  Green  Bay,  ascended 
the  Fox  river,  made  the  portage  to  the  Wisconsin  river  and 
floated  down  its  rapid  current  to  its  mouth,  and  on  June  17th 
they  passed  out  onto  the  broad  bosom  of  the  Father  of  Waters. 
One  hundred  and  thirty-two  years  before  that  date,  De  Soto 
and  his  half-famished  followers  in  their  wanderings  had 
stumbled  upon  that  mighty  river,  hundreds  of  miles  farther 
down  its  course,  and  in  the  waters  of  which  that  intrepid 
Spaniard  found  his  grave.  From  the  days  when  De  Soto's 
men  floated  down  the  Mississippi  upon  rough  rafts  to  the 
time  of  Joliet  and  Marquette,  so  far  as  recorded  history  teach- 
es, no  white  man  had  stood  upon  its  banks.  From  the  mouth 
of  the  Wisconsin  river,  the  explorers  passed  down  the  Miss- 
issippi river  until  they  reached  the  mouth  of  the  Arkansas 
river,  from  whence  they  retraced  their  steps  to  the  mouth  of 
the  Illinois  river,  which  they  ascended  and  returned  to  the 
mission  at  Green  Bay  by  the  Des  Plaines  river,  the  Chicago 
portage,  the  Chicago  river  and  Lake  Michigan,  where  they 
arrived  in  the  early  fall. 

Joliet  and  Marquette  were  the  first  white  men  to  set  foot 

Marquette        upon  Illinois  soil.     Joliet  returned  to  New  France,  and  the 


following  year  Father  Marquette  returned  to  the  Illinois  coun- 
try. He  spent  the  winter  of  1674-5  in  a  lodge  near  the  mouth 
of  the  Chicago  river,  and  with  the  return  of  spring  visited 
the  Indian  villages  along  the  Illinois  river,  preached  to  the 
Indians  and  established  the  first  mission  in  Illinois.  On  the 
return  trip  he  died,  and  was  buried  in  the  sands  upon  the 
south  shore  of  Lake  Michigan.  The  following  year  his  re- 
mains were  exhumed  by  Mission  Indians  and  his  bones  were 
tenderly  borne  to  St.  Ignace,  where  they  now  rest  upon  the 
shore  of  the  Straits  he  dearly  loved.  Father  Marquette  was 
a  devout  man,  whose  "saintly  character  will  long  remain  an 
inspiration  to  men  of  every  creed  and  calling. " 

After  the  discovery  of  the  Mississippi  and  Illinois  rivers, 
the  ruling  power  in  New  France  determined  to  unite  so  far 
as  they  could  the  St.  Lawrence,  the  basin  of  the  Great  Lakes 
and  the  Mississippi  valley.  In  1679  it  was  determined  to 
build  a  line  of  forts  upon  the  banks  and  shores  of  these  great 
water-ways,  and  La  Salle,  a  daring  Frenchman,  was  commis-  Lasaiie 

and  Tonty 

sioned  to  repair  to  the  Illinois  country.  In  company  with 
that  great  leader  of  men,  Tonty,  and  Father  Hennepin,  who 
afterwards  explored  the  upper  Mississippi,  and  a  number  of 
artisans  and  soldiers,  La  Salle  reached  the  Illinois  country 
in  January,  1680,  and  during  that  winter  erected  Fort  Creve- 
coeur  on  the  south  side  of  the  river,  at  the  lower  end  of  Peo- 
ria  Lake.  Thereafter  he  built  Fort  St.  Louis,  upon  Starved 
Rock,  a  bold  promontory  projecting  to  the  water's  edge,  far- 
ther up  the  stream.  He  descended  the  Illinois  and  Missis- 
sippi rivers  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  and  soon  returned  to 
France  with  a  view  to  bringing  out  to  the  Illinois  country  a 
colony.  On  his  return,  by  way  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  he 
failed  to  find  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi  river,  and  while 
wandering  through  the  swamps  and  bayous  of  the  South,  in 


6 

a  superhuman  effort  to  extricate  the  colonists  from  the  terri- 
ble situation  into  which  he  had  brought  them,  and  after  he 
and  they  had  endured  great  hardships  and  sufferings,  he  per- 
ished, within  the  bounds  of  what  is  now  the  State  of  Texas, 
by  the  treachery  of  one  of  his  own  men.  "Thus  in  the  vigor 
of  his  manhood,  at  the  age  of  forty-three,  died  Robert  Cave- 
lier  de  la  Salle,  'one  of  the  greatest  men,'  writes  Tonty,  'of 
this  age;'  without  question  one  of  the  most  remarkable  ex- 
plorers whose  names  live  in  history." 

The  accounts  of  the  rich  soil  and  abundant  game  abound- 
ing in  the  Illinois  country,  carried  to  Montreal  by  Joliet  and 
La  Salle,  and  the  publication  of  the  report  of  Father  Mar- 
quette  of  the  discovery  of  the  Mississippi  and  Illinois  rivers, 
encouraged  a  few  hardy  pioneers  to  migrate  to  the  Illinois 
country,  and  by  the  year  1700  there  were  a  number  of  fam- 
ilies residing  in  the  Mississippi  valley,  near  the  mouth  of  the 
Kaskaskia  river,  which  was  the  first  permanent  white  settle- 
ment in  the  Illinois  country.  The  French  subsequently  found- 
ed other  settlements  and  in  1718  commenced  the  building  of 
Fort  Chartres,  which  was  located  on  the  east  side  of  the  Miss- 
issippi river,  some  sixteen  miles  up-stream  from  Kaskaskia. 
The  construction  of  this  fort  is  said  to  have  drained  the 
treasury  of  France,  and  while  it  never  fired  a  hostile  shot,  it 
was  the  greatest  structure  of  its  kind  in  America  at  the  time 
it  was  completed  in  1720.  The  seat  of  government  of  the 
Illinois  country  was  located  at  Fort  Chartres  until  it  was 
transferred  in  1772,  by  the  English  to  Kaskaskia. 

Port  Chartres  The  French,  when  Fort  Chartres  was  completed,  doubt- 

less supposed  they  had  firmly  established  themselves  in  the 
Mississippi  valley.  The  God  of  War,  however,  smiled  upon 
the  English  upon  the  Plains  of  Abraham,  and  the  French,  at 
the  treaty  of  Paris,  1763,  ceded  to  England  all  her  possessions 
in  America  east  of  the  Mississippi  river,  except  the  Isle  of 


Orleans,  and  the  Illinois  country  was  lost  to  France.  In  1765, 
Fort  Chartres  was  taken  possession  of  on  behalf  of  the  Eng- 
lish by  Captain  Sterling  and  a  company  of  Highlanders,  and 
with  its  transfer  English  civilization  permanently  supplanted 
that  of  France  in  the  Illinois  country. 

From  the  treaty  of  Paris,  in  1763,  to  the  signing  of  the 
Declaration  of  Independence,  in  1776,  but  little  progress  was 
made  in  the  Illinois  country.  The  British  did  not  encourage 
its  permanent  settlement,  but  sought  to  occupy  the  country 
as  a  vast  game  preserve  for  the  benefit  of  the  Indian,  and  in 
October,  1763,  to  effect  that  purpose,  a  proclamation  was  issu- 
ed in  the  name  of  King  George,  which  declared  "it  to  be  our 
royal  will  and  pleasure  to  reserve  under  our  sover- 

eignty, protection  and  dominion,  for  the  use  of  the  said  Indi- 
ans *  all  the  lands  and  territories  lying  to  the  west- 
ward of  the  sources  of  the  rivers  which  fall  into  the  sea  from 
the  west  and  north-west,  *  *  *  and  we  do  hereby  strict- 
ly forbid,  on  pain  of  our  displeasure,  all  our  loving  subjects 
from  making  any  purchases  or  settlements  whatever,  or 
taking  possession  of  any  of  the  lands  above  reserved,  with- 
out our  special  leave  and  license,"  but  "despite  this  attempt 
to  obstruct  the  tide  of  western  settlement,"  the  North-west 
was  soon  to  be  occupied  by  men  from  east  of  the  Alle- 
ghanies  who  were  pouring  through  the  mountain  passes  into 
Kentucky  and  Tennessee. 

At  this  epoch  in  the  settlement  of  the  Illinois  country, 
there  appeared  upon  the  stage  of  action,  a  young  Virginian, 
who  was  the  counterpart  of  Washington  in  many  particulars 
and  who  has  been  called  the  ' 'Washington  of  the  North-west. "  Clark 
He  was  fairly  well  educated,  was  a  surveyor  by  occupation, 
and  an  Indian  fighter  of  renown,  having  served  with  great 
credit  in  Lord  Dunmore's  and  other  Indian  wars.  In  1777, 
the  Indians  north  and  west  of  the  Ohio  river,  were  being  in- 


cited  by  the  English  to  attack  the  settlers  in  Kentucky  and 
Tennessee,  and  our  young  hero,  then  in  Kentucky,  im- 
mediately repaired  to  Virginia  to  confer  with  Patrick  Henry, 
the  then  governor  of  that  State,  relative  to  the  defense  of 
the  northwest  border.  He  advocated  the  carrying  of  the 
war  into  the  heart  of  the  Indian  country.  He  represented 
to  Governor  Henry  that  the  forts  lately  surrendered  by  the 
French  to  the  English  were  poorly  manned  and  provisioned, 
and  that  the  French  inhabitants  of  the  Illinois  country  were 
not  friendly  or  loyal  to  the  English  and  that  by  prompt 
action  he  was  of  the  opinion  the  Illinois  country  could  be 
wrested  from  the  British,  and  the  Indians  defeated  and  dis- 
persed. He  so  impressed  the  great  Virginian  with  his  views 
that  he  was  granted  $6,000  in  currency  and  authorized  to  or- 
ganize an  expedition  against  the  posts  north  of  the  Ohio,  in 
the  name  of  Virginia.  He  rendezvoused  his  army  at  Red-' 
stone,  and  on  May  12,  1779,  with  two  hundred  and  fifty  men, 
broke  camp,  destined  for  the  Illinois  country.  He  obtained 
supplies  for  the  expedition  at  Pittsburg,  and  then  his  little 
army  dropped  down  the  Ohio  river,  on  flat  boats,  to  what  is 
Fort  Massac  now  Corn  Island.  He  left  the  Ohio  river  at  Fort  Massac  and 
started  across  the  country,  one  hundred  twenty  miles,  for 
Kaskaskia,  with  no  provisions  other  than  parched  Indian 
corn,  which  his  men  carried  in  their  haversacks.  He  ar- 
rived at  Kaskaskia  July  fourth,  the  anniversary  of  the  sign- 
ing of  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  and  surprised  and 
captured  the  garrison.  He  remained  at  Kaskaskia  and  Ca- 
hokia  until  the  month  of  February,  1779,  when  with  one 
hundred  seventy  men,  mid  flood  and  frost  and  without  a 
commissary,  he  made  one  of  the  most  wonderful  winter  cam- 
paigns on  record,  from  Kaskaskia  to  Vincennes.  on  the 
Wabash  river,  a  distance  of  two  hundred  twenty  miles,  and 


9 

after  an  attack  captured  Fort  Sackville  with  its  commanding 
officer,  General  Hamilton,  and  its  entire  garrison,  and  all  its 
military  supplies.  With  the  capture  of  General  Hamilton  capture  of 

Fort  Sackville 

and  his  army,  all  the  northwest  territory  south  of  Detroit, 
passed  under  the  control  of  the  State  of  Virginia  and  was 
governed  by  that  State  as  the  County  of  Illinois,  until  the 
State  ceded  her  claim  in  the  Northwest  Territory  to  the 
United  States  in  1784. 

The  topography  of  the  country  was  so  little  known  at 
the  time  the  original  grants  were  made  by  England  to  the 
several  colonies  that  these  grants  often  were  conflicting  and 
contradictory,  and  in  many  instances  highly  extravagant. 
The  consequences  were  that  immediately  after  the  colonies 
broke  away  from  the  mother  country,  conflicting  claims  to 
the  unsettled  territory  lying  west  of  the  Alleghany  moun- 
tains were  set  up  by  the  several  colonies,  which,  after  in- 
dependence had  been  established,  threatened  the  formation 
of  a  permanent  union.  Impoverished  as  the  States  then  were 
and  overburdened  with  debts  created  for  the  general  good  of 
the  whole  country,  it  was  claimed  by  many  that  the  vacant 
lands  which  were  so  unevenly  distributed  originally,  ought  to 
be  made  a  common  fund  for  defraying  the  expenses  of  the  rev- 
olutionary war,  and  Congress  made  successfully  an  appeal  to 
the  patriotism  and  magnanimity  of  the  favored  States  to  cede 
their  respective  claims  in  the  public  domain  to  the  United 
States  goverment.  New  York  and  Virginia  led  the  way,  and 
their  examples  were  followed,  at  successive  intervals,  by  all 
of  the  other  States  claiming  lands  situated  west  of  the  Alle- 
ghanies.  By  these  cessions  the  United  States  derived  title 
to  all  that  portion  of  the  public  domain  lying  north  of  Florida 
and  east  of  the  Mississippi  river.  Thus  was  a  source  of  irri- 
tation between  the  original  States  removed,  and  the  title  to 
the  public  domain  vested  in  the  United  States.  By  the  cession 


10 

of  Virginia  of  her  interest  in  the  lands  situated  in  the  North- 
west Territory,  the  titles  acquired  by  purchasers  of  the  public 
lands  in  Illinois  were  rendered  free  from  doubt. 

General  Clark,  at  the  time  of  the  conquest  of  the  North- 
west Territory,  was  twenty-five  years  of  age,  of  strong  frame, 
of  great  courage,  and  possessed  of  "unbridled  passions. "  His 
soldiers  were  men  of  desperate  courage,  who  fully  realized 
they  were  fighting  to  protect  their  homes  and  their  wives  and 
children  from  the  torch  and  tomahawk  of  the  merciless  sav- 
age. It  is  difficult  at  this  date  to  estimate  the  importance  of  the 
victories  won  by  General  Clark  in  the  Northwest.  Suffice  it 
to  say  that  he  and  his  backwoodsmen  captured  the  Illinois 
country  alone,  from  the  English  and  Indians,  and  maintained 
their  hold  upon  it  until  the  close  of  the  Revolutionary  war 
and  made  it  possible  for  the  representatives  of  the  United 
States  at  Paris,  in  1783,  to  establish  the  western  boundary 
of  the  United  States  at  the  Mississippi  river,  instead  of  at 
the  crest  of  the  Alleghany  mountains. 

The  Ordinance  of  1787,  passed  by  Congress  for  the 
of  ITS?  "  *  government  of  the  North-west  Territory,  has  been  character- 
ized as  a  second  Declaration  of  Independence.  It  was  indeed 
a  charter  of  liberty.  The  first  governor  of  the  Northwest 
Territory  was  General  St.  Clair.  May  7,  1800,  the  North- 
west Territory  was  divided,  the  territory  west  of  a  line  drawn 
north  from  a  point  on  the  Ohio  river  opposite  the  mouth  of 
the  Kentucky  river  to  Port  Recovery,  and  thence  to  the 
Canadian  line,  was  created  into  the  Territory  of  Indiana, 
with  General  Harrison  as  its  first  governor,  and  the  terri- 
tory east  of  that  line  was  admitted  into  the  Union  as  the 
State  of  Ohio,  on  February  19,  1803.  And  on  February  3, 
1809,  that  portion  of  the  Territory  of  Indiana  lying  west  of 
the  lower  Wabash  river  and  the  meridian  of  Vincennes  was 
erected  into  the  Territory  of  Illinois  with  Ninian  Edwards  as 


11 

its  first  governor,  and  nine  years  later,  December  3,  1818, 
Illinois  was  admitted  into  the  Union,  a  State,  with  all  the 
rights  and  privileges  of  the  original  States. 

The  Ordinance  of  1787  provided  that  there  should  be 
erected  out  of  the  North-west  Territory  not  less  than  three 
nor  more  than  five  States,  and  that  the  northern  boundary  of 
the  State  occupying  the  present  geographical  position  of  the 
State  of  Illinois  should  be  an  east  and  west  line  drawn 
through  the  southerly  bend  or  extreme  of  Lake  Michigan. 
While  the  bill  for  an  enabling  act  was  before  the  Committee 
of  the  Whole,  in  Congress,  upon  the  motion  of  Judge  Pope, 
Illinois'  delegate  in  Congress,  the  act  was  so  amended  as  to  Nathaniel 

Pope  and  the 

establish  the  northern  boundary  of  the  present  State  of  Illi-  Northern 
nois,  at  42°  30 '.  The  amendment  of  Judge  Pope  carried  the 
northern  line  of  the  State  sixty-one  miles  north  of  the  line 
fixed  by  the  Ordinance  of  1787,  and  gave  to  the  State  8,500 
square  miles  of  territory  now  comprising  the  fourteen  north- 
ern counties  of  the  State.  The  change  in  the  northern 
boundary  thus  made,  was  of  great  importance  to  the  State  of 
Illinois  and  the  entire  country.  Had  the  line  fixed  by  the 
Ordinance  of  1787  been  established  as  the  State's  northern 
boundary,  the  State  would  have  been  excluded  from  a  partici- 
pation in  the  commerce  of  the  Great  Lakes,  and  the  city  of 
Chicago,  the  eastern  terminus  of  the  Illinois  and  Michigan 
canal,  and  the  northern  terminus  of  the  Illinois  Central  Rail- 
road which  traverses  the  State  from  north  to  south,  would 
have  been  in  the  State  of  Wisconsin,  and  several  of  the  great 
railroads  which  cross  northern  Illinois  from  east  to  west, 
would  be  located  north  of  the  State  line  of  Illinois;  and,  as 
all  the  great  rivers  of  the  State  flow  into  the  Mississippi 
River,  and  thence  to  the  Gulf,  the  commerce  of  the  State,  in 
its  incipiency,  would  have  found  an  outlet  by  way  of  New 


12 

Orleans,  instead  of  through  Chicago.  As  a  result  of  this, 
Illinois'  interests  would  have  been  with  the  South,  instead 
of  the  North,  during  the  War  of  the  Rebellion,  and  the  con- 
tending armies  for  and  against  the  Union  might  have  met  in 
armed  conflict  upon  the  soil  of  Illinois,  instead  of  that  of 
Kentucky  and  Missouri,  in  the  early  days  of  that  war,  and 
the  heavy  vote  of  the  northern  counties  which  made  possible 
the  election  of  a  Republican  governor  in  1856  and  gave  Abra- 
ham Lincoln  the  State  in  1860,  as  against  Stephen  A.  Doug- 
las, would  not  have  been  cast  in  Illinois,  and  the  thousands 
.of  loyal  men  who  went  out  in  defense  of  the  Union  when  its 
life  was  assailed  in  1861,  from  the  northern  counties  of  the 
State,  would  have  marched  and  fought  under  the  banner  of 
another  State,  and  Illinois  would  not  have  been,  as  she  is  to- 
day, the  Empire  State  of  the  Mississippi  Valley,  and  many 
of  those  present  to-night  would  have  been  citizens  of  Wiscon- 
sin instead  of  citizens  of  Illinois.  The  State  of  Illinois,  as 
well  as  the  entire  nation,  owes  a  debt  of  deep  gratitude  to 
Judge  Pope  and  his  compeers,  who  had  the  wisdom  and  fore- 
sight to  bring  the  State  of  Illinois  into  the  Union  in  its  pres- 
ent form,  rather  than  in  the  form  in  which  it  was  carved  out 
by  the  ordinance  of  1787. 

While  there  are  many  bright  pages  of  Illinois  History, 
Negro  slavery  there  are  some  dark  ones.  In  1720,  one  hundred  years  after 
in  Illinois  fae  £rsj.  cargO  of  negro  slaves  was  landed  at  Jamestown, 
there  was  landed  at  St.  Philip,  near  Kaskaskia,  by  Philip 
Francis  Renault,  a  cargo  of  five  hundred  negro  slaves  from 
San  Domingo,  which  he  afterward  sold  to  the  inhabitants  of 
the  Illinois  country.  Thus  was  slavery  established  in  the 
Northwest  Territory,  and  it  was  not  eradicated  from  the 
State  of  Illinois  for  more  than  one  hundred  and  twenty-five 
years,  and  its  baleful  influence  was  felt  within  the  borders  of 
the  State  for  a  much  longer  time. 


13 

At  the  time  of  the  cession  of  the  Illinois  country  to  Eng- 
land by  the  French,  it  is  estimated  there  were  three  thou- 
sand inhabitants  in  the  Northwest  Territory,  nine  hundred 
of  whom  were  negro  slaves.  Many  of  the  French,  with  their 
slaves,  shortly  after  the  Treaty  of  Paris,  moved  beyond  the 
Mississippi  river,  and  the  population  north  and  west  of  the 
Ohio  river  had  decreased  in  1770  to  sixteen  hundred,  of  whom 
six  hundred  were  negro  slaves.  There  were  no  restrictions  im- 
posed upon  the  holding  of  slaves  in  the  Northwest  Terri- 
tory by  England  or  Virginia,  and  prior  to  the  passage  of  the 
Ordinance  of  1787  negro  servitude  was  thought  by  its  friends 
to  be  firmly  established  in  the  Northwest  Territory.  By 
article  VI  of  that  ordinance  it  was  provided:  "There  shall 
be  neither  slavery  nor  involuntary  servitude  in  the  said  ter- 
ritory, otherwise  than  in  the  punishment  of  crimes,  whereof 
the  party  shall  have  been  duly  convicted."  This  provision, 
prohibiting  slavery  in  the  Northwest  Territory,  found  in 
the  Ordinance  of  1787,  shows  that  the  view,  at  that  time,  in 
Congress,  was  that  slavery  might  be  excluded  by  Congress 
from  the  territories  of  the  United  States,  which  view  was 
subsequently  repudiated  by  Senator  Douglas  and  others,  at 
the  time  of  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise  in  1854. 
The  insertion  of  article  VI  in  the  Ordinance  of  1787,  caused 
great  uneasiness  among  the  slave-holders  residing  in  the 
Northwest  Territory.  Governor  St.  Clair,  and  subsequent- 
ly Governor  Harrison,  took  the  position,  however,  that  the 
ordinance  should  be  given  a  prospective  effect,  and  that  it  did 
not  affect  the  status  of  slaves  held  in  the  Northwest  Terri- 
tory prior  to  1787,  and  that  view  was  apparently  acquiesced 
in  by  the  people  and  the  courts  in  the  territory  for  many 
years.  That  construction  of  the  ordinance,  did  not  permit 
the  bringing  of  slaves  into  the  Northwest  Territory  from 


14 

the  slave  States,  and,  to  encourage  the  immigration  of  slave- 
holders with  their  slaves  from  the  States  south  and  east  of 
the  Ohio  river,  a  system  of  "voluntary  servitude"  was  crea- 
ted in  the  Northwest  Territory.  Under  the  voluntary  sys- 
tem, the  slave  was  indentured  to  his  master,  males  until 
they  were  thirty- five  years,  and  females  until  they  were 
thirty-two  years  of  age,  and  the  children  born  to  persons  of 
color  during  their  period  of  service  might  be  indentured  to 
service,  the  boys  until  they  were  thirty  years,  and  the  girls 
until  they  were  twenty-eight  years  of  age,  and  unless  slaves 
were  indentured  within  thirty  days  after  they  were  brought 
into  the  territory,  they  could  be  removed  from  the  territory. 
The  legality  of  this  system  of  voluntary  servitude  was  recog- 
nized by  a  statute  of  the  Indiana  territory,  passed  in  1807, 
which  was  subsequently  in  force  in  the  Illinois  territory. 

At  the  time  the  Territory  of  Illinois  was  organized, 
there  were  found  therein  French  negro  slaves,  indentured 
negro  slaves,  and  free  negroes.  In  the  convention  which 
framed  the  Constitution  of  1818,  there  were  three  classes  of 
delegates,  those  opposed  to  negro  slavery  in  any  form,  those 
in  favor  of  negro  slavery  in  its  absolute  form,  and  those  who 
favored  a  middle  course,  that  is,  the  voluntary  system.  The 
conservatives  incorporated  into  that  instrument  their  view, 
and  while  it  was  provided  that  "slavery  or  involuntary  ser- 
vitude" should  not  thereafter  be  introduced  into  this  State 
otherwise  than  for  the  punishment  of  crimes,  the  voluntary 
system  was  fully  recognized.  Although  the  constitution  of 
1818  barred  slavery  from  the  State  in  the  future,  it  was 
contended  it  did  not  confer  freedom  upon  the  French  negro 
slaves  who  were  in  the  territory  prior  to  the  admission  of  the 
State  into  the  Union,  and  although  the  term  of  service  for 
which  the  black  man  was  permitted  to  indenture  himself  was 


15 

shortened  to  one  year,  and  the  children  of  these  indentured 
slaves  could  not  be  indentured  for  a  longer  period  than,  the 
boys,  until  they  arrived  at  the  age  of  twenty-one  years,  and 
the    girls   at  the    age  of  eighteen   years,    it  did   not  affect 
the  terms  of   service  of  the   indentured   slaves   themselves 
then  under  contract  of  service,   and  the  State  legislature  at 
its  first  session  after  the  admission  of  the  State  into  the  Un- 
ion, re-enacted  with  all   their  severity,    the    "Black  Laws," 
which  had  been  in  force  in  the  territory.      These  laws  were 
largely  copied  from  the  slave  codes    of   Kentucky   and  Vir- 
ginia, and  under  them  the  negro,  free  or  slave,  was  practi-  ™^f' ack 
cally  without  protection.     If  free,  unless  he  could  present  a 
certificate  of  freedom  from  a  court  of  record,   he  was  liable 
to  arrest  and  imprisonment  and  to  be  sold   to  service  by  the 
sheriff  of  the  county  for  a  period  of  one  year;  or,  if  he  sought 
employment,  he  was  in  constant  danger  of   being  kidnapped 
by  the  desperadoes  who  infested  the  country,  and  sold  down 
the  river.     If  a  slave,  indentured  or  otherwise,  he  could  not 
bring  a  suit  or  testify  in   court;  if  found  from  home,  he  was 
whipped;  he  might  be  sold  upon  execution,  or  mortgaged,  to 
pay  or  secure  his  master's  debt,  and  in  case  of   his  master's 
death  he  passed  to  his  master's  administrator   or   executor, 
along  with  his  horses  and  mules.     The   "Black   Laws"  were 
passed  and  administered  with  a  view  to  force  all  the  negroes 
in  Illinois,  other  than  the  French  negro  slaves,  into  the  vol- 
untary system.     The  French  negro  slave  and  the  indentured 
slave  had  a   master  and  a  home;  the  free  negro   in  Illinois 
was  an  outcast.     The  settled  portions  of  Illinois  in  1820  bor- 
dered upon  the  States  of   Kentucky   and  Missouri,    and  the 
slave-holder  from  Kentucky,  with  his  horses,    mules,    cattle 
and  drove  of  slaves,   passing  through   Illinois  to  Missouri, 
often  remarked  that  he  regretted   Illinois   was  not  a   slave 


16 

State,  as  he  would  if  it  were  a  slave  State,  settle  upon  its 
fertile  prairies  with  his  slaves.  Money  was  scarce  and  the 
times  were  hard,  and  a  cry  went  up  from  all  over  Southern 
Illinois  that  a  great  mistake  had  been  made  in  bringing  Illi- 
nois into  the  Union  as  a  free  State  and  that  a  convention 
should  be  called  to  change  the  Constitution  of  the  State  upon 
the  slavery  question.  There  was  great  excitement  on  the 
slavery  question  at  the  election  in  the  fall  of  1822.  Hon. 
Edward  Coles,  a  strong  anti-slavery  man,  was  elected  gov- 
ernor, but  the  legislature  was  pro-slavery,  and  at  the  session 
of  1823,  after  unseating  an  anti-slavery  member  to  give  the 
pro-slavery  men  the  required  number  of  votes,  a  law  was 
passed  providing  for  submitting  the  question  of  the  calling 
of  a  convention  to  revise  the  Constitution  to  a  vote  of  the 
people.  The  vote  was  had  on  the  second  of  August,  1824, 
and  the  proposition  for  the  Convention  was  defeated  by  a 
majority  of  1,668  votes  out  of  a  total  vote  of  11,612,  and  Illi- 
nois remained  a  free  State.  The  contest  of  1824,  over  the 
calling  of  a  convention  to  revise  the  Constitution  of  Illinois, 
was  the  most  bitter  political  contest  ever  waged  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  State.  It  was  but  a  fore-runner  of  the  resort  to 
arms  which  drenched  the  country  in  blood  thirty-seven 
years  later. 

In  1837  Elijah  P.  Lovejoy  was  murdered  by  a  pro-slavery 
The  Murder      mob  at  Alton,  and  the  State  was  shaken  from  center  to  cir- 

of  Lovejoy 

cumference  by  the  agitation  of  the  slavery  question.  At 
about  that  time,  cases  involving  the  status  of  the  negro  in 
Illinois  commenced  to  find  their  way  into  the  courts,  and 
numerous  cases  in  time  reached  the  Supreme  Court.  In  1839 
a  case  was  brought  by  the  administrators  of  Nathan  Crom- 
well against  David  Bailey  in  the  circuit  court  of  Tazewell 
county,  upon  a  promissory  note  made  to  Cromwell  in  his  life- 


17 

time,  for  the  purchase  of  a  negro  girl  named  Nance,  sold  by 
Cromwell  to  Bailey.  The  plaintiff  was  represented  by  Judge 
Stephen  T.  Logan,  and  the  defendant  by  Abraham  Lincoln. 
Judgment  was  rendered  upon  the  note  by  Judge  William 
Thomas,  who  presided  at  the  trial,  in  favor  of  the  plaintiff 
for  $431.97.  The  defendant  appealed  the  case  to  the  Supreme 
Court,  where  it  was  contended  the  note  was  without  consid- 
eration and  void,  as  it  was  given  as  the  purchase  price  of  a 

Opinion  of 

human  being  who  the  evidence  showed  was  free  and  there-  Judge  Breese 

fore  not  the  subject  of  sale.     The  Supreme  Cqurt  reversed 

the  trial  court.     The  opinion  being  written  by  Judge  Breese 

(3  Scam.  71,)  who  held,  contrary  to  the  established  rule  in 

many  of  the  southern  States,  that  the  presumption  in  Illinois 

was  that  a  negro  was  free  and  not  the  subject  of  sale.     This 

case  established  a  great  principle  in  the  jurisprudence  of  our 

State.  Under  the  old  rule  the  burden  was  upon  the  negro  to 

establish  he  was  free,  as  the  presumption  obtained  that  a 

black  man  was  a  slave.     Under  the  rule  established  in  this 

case,  the  presumption  obtained  that  a  black  man  was  free, 

and  the  person  who  asserted  he  was  a  slave  was  required  to 

bring  forward  his  proof,  which  often  he  could  not  do.     The 

early  reported  cases,   it  is  sometimes   said,  often  seem  to 

reflect  pro- slavery  views,  but    after    the  case  of  Bailey  v 

Cromwell  we  think  that  cannot  be  truthfully  said. 

In  1845  the  great  case  of   Jarrot  v  Jarrot,   (2  Gilm.  1,) 
was  decided,  which  was  an  action  of  assumpsit  by  the  de- 
scendant of  a  French  negro  slave,  against  his  master,  for 
wages.     The  negro  was  defeated  in  the  court  below,  and  the  Jud  e  Youn  ,s 
case  was  reversed  by  the  Supreme  Court.  Separate  opinions  °PInion 
were  filed  by  Justices  Scates  and  Young.     The  opinion  by 
Judge  Young  contains  an  exhaustive  review  of  the  legal  his- 
tory of  slavery  in  all  its  phases  in  the  State  of  Illinois,  and 


18 

the  judgment  rendered  in  that  case  sounded  the  death  knell 
of  the  institution  of  human  slavery  in  Illinois.  The  court 
held  article  VI  of  the  Ordinance  of  1787  was  a  valid  enact- 
ment, and,  contrary  to  the  view  expressed  by  Governors  St. 
Clair  and  Harrison  and  acted  upon  by  the  people  and  the 
lower  courts  for  many  years,  it  was  held  to  be  retroactive 
in  its  operation, — that  is,  that  it  applied  to  all  negro  slaves 
in  the  Northwest  Territory  at  the  time  of  its  passage.  The 
effect  of  this  decision  was  to  liberate  all  the  French  negro 
slaves  and  their  children  in  Illinois  from  the  bondage  in 
which  they  had  been  illegally  held  for  fifty-eight  years. 

The  Constitution  of  1848  provided  that  the  General  As- 
sembly should  pass  such  laws  as  might  be  necessary  to  effec- 
tually prevent  free  negroes  from  permanently  settling  in 
this  State  and  to  prevent  owners  of  slaves  from  bringing 
them  into  the  State  for  the  purpose  of  setting  them  free, 
on  February  12,  1853,  a  statute  was  passed  by  the  legisla- 
Ne  ture  which  provided  that  any  negro  or  mulatto,  bond  or  free, 

who  should  come  into  the  State  and  remain  in  the  State  for 
the  period  of  ten  days,  with  a  view  to  permanently  settle  in 
the  State,  should  be  deemed  guilty  of  a  misdemeanor,  and, 
upon  conviction,  in  case  he  failed  to  pay  the  fine  imposed 
upon  him,  he  should  be  sold  at  public  auction  to  any  person 
who  would  pay  the  fine  and  costs  for  the  shortest  period  of 
his  service.  On  the  25th  of  February,  1862,  a  mulatto 
named  Nelson  was  arrested  and  carried  before  a  justice  of 
the  peace  in  Hancock  county,  and  convicted  of  a  violation  of 
this  statute.  An  appeal  was  prosecuted  to  the  circuit  court 
of  that  county,  and  a  change  of  venue  was  later  granted  to 
the  circuit  court  of  Adams  county,  where  the  defendant  was 
again  convicted.  The  case  was  carried  by  writ  of  error  to 
the  Supreme  Court,  where,  in  1864  (33  111.  390,)  the  statute 


19 

was  held  constitutional  and  the  judgment  of  conviction  was 
affirmed,  on  the  ground  that  the  sale  of  a  negro  under  the 
statute  for  a  failure  to  pay  the  fine  and  costs  adjudged 
against  him,  did  not  reduce  him  to  a  state  of  slavery,  but 
was  a  mode  of  punishment  upon  a  conviction  of  crime  au- 
thorized by  the  Constitution.  Thus,  although  slavery  did 
not  exist,  even  in  form,  in  Illinois,  subsequent  to  1845,  in 
1864,  and  after  the  Emancipation  Proclamation  had  been 
issued  and  just  at  the  close  of  the  War  of  the  Rebellion,  by 
virtue  of  the  Constitution  of  1848  and  the  Act  of  1853  it 
was  held  unlawful  for  a  free  black  man  to  acquire  a  perma- 
nent home  in  Illinois.  This  case  was  the  last  case  decided 
by  the  Supreme  Court  of  Illinois  bearing  upon  the  slavery 
question  or  the  status  of  the  colored  man  in  Illinois,  prior 
to  the  amendments  to  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States 
adopted  subsequent  to  1864.  In  1865  the  legislature  repealed 
the  "Black  Laws"  of  1819  and  the  equally  oppressive  Stat- 
ute of  1853,  and  the  principles  of  the  Declaration  of  In- 
dependence, penned  by  the  immortal  Jefferson,  that  "All 
men  are  created  equal;  that  they  are  endowed  by  their  Crea- 
tor with  certain  unalienable  Rights;  that  among  these  are 
Life,  Liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  Happiness,"  then  went 
into  force,  not  only  in  theory  but  in  fact,  in  the  State  of  Illi- 
nois. 

From  the  earliest  settlement  of  the  State,  and  especially 
subsequent  to  the  admission  of  Missouri  as  a  slave  State, 
many  runaway  negroes  from  Kentucky  and  Missouri  found 

The  Under- 

their  way  into  Illinois,  and,  as  they    fled    in   the   darkness,  ground  Rail- 
over  the  prairies  of  the  State  guided  only  by  the  North  star  ways 
towards  Canada  and   freedom,  they   were   pursued   by   the 
slave  catcher  with  the   instinct   and   tenacity   of  the   blood 
hound,  and  while  pro- slavery  men  assisted  the  slave  hunter 


20 

to  run  down  and  re-capture  runaway  slaves,  the  anti-slavery 
men  of  the  State  sympathized  with  and  assisted  these  black 
men  in  their  flight  toward  the  land  of  freedom,  and  in  some 
way,  which  is  not  now  easily  understood,  during  this  period 
were  constructed  across  the  State  of  Illinois,  three  great 
"underground  railway"  lines,  with  their  termini  upon  the 
Mississippi  river  and  Lake  Michigan,  One  line  started  at 
Chester,  another  at  Alton,  and  a  third  at  Quincy,  on  the 
Mississippi  river.  The  Quincy  line  passed  subtantially  over 
the  same  route  from  Quincy  to  Chicago,  now  daily  traversed 
by  the  trains  of  the  Chicago,  Burlington  and  Quincy  Rail- 
way Company.  There  were  stations  at  Galesburg  in  Knox 
county,  at  Wethersfield  in  Henry  county,  and  at  Princeton  in 
Bureau  county.  This  railway  did  not  run  palace  sleepers, 
or  even  smokers.  It  carried,  however,  hundreds  of  black 
men,  black  women,  and  black  children,  from  bondage  to 
freedom.  The  engineers,  conductors,  brakemen  and  station 
agents  upon  these  lines  were  God-fearing  men  who  had  the 
courage  of  their  convictions,  and,  if  occasion  required,  did 
not  hesitate,  when  upon  duty,  to  use  force  to  protect  their 
passengers  from  the  interference  of  slave  owners  and  slave 
catchers,  whom  they  loathed  and  despised.  The  men  who 
were  thus  engaged  in  assisting  negro  slaves  to  escape  from 
bondage  violated  the  statute  law  of  both  the  State  and  the 
Nation.  This  they  knew,  but  they  justified  their  action  by 
an  appeal  to  the  "higher  law." 

The  military  history  of  Illinois   is   no   less   interesting 

Hirtw""fry     than  its  civil  and  P°litical  history,  and  when  it  shall  be  fully 
Illinois  written,  will  contain  honorable   mention   of   La    Salle   and 

Tonty  of  the  French  period,  George  Rogers  Clark  and  his 
backwoods  rifle  men  of  Revolutionary  fame,  General  Rey- 
nolds and  his  rangers  of  the  War  of  1812,  General  Henry 


21 

and  the  Illinois  militia  of  the  Black  Hawk  war,  and  Hardin, 
Baker,  Shields  and  others  of  the  Mexican  war.  That  his- 
tory will,  however,  deal  largely  with  the  war  for  the  preser- 
vation of  the  Union  and  the  overthrow  of  human  slavery. 
In  that  great  struggle  Illinois  sent  out,  in  defense  of  the 
flag  more  than  two  hundred  fifty  thousand  of  her  loyal  sons, 
and  it  has  the  proud  distinction  of  having  been  the  home  of 
John  A.  Logan,  Ulysses  S.  Grant  and  Abraham  Lincoln, 
the  three  greatest  characters  developed  during  that  period. 

"Not  without  thy  wondrous  story, 

Illinois,  Illinois. 
Can  be  writ  the  Nation's  glory, 

Illinois,  Illinois. 

On  the  record  of  thy  years 

Abraham  Lincoln's  name  appears, 

Grant  and  Logan  and  our  tears, 

Illinois,  Illinois." 


The  "Military  Tract.' 


The  military  tract  bounty  lands  are 
situated  between  the  Illinois  arid  Mis- 
sissippi rivers.  From  the  confluence 
of  the  streams  to  the  northern  line  of 
surveys  is  a  distance  of  162  miles.  72 
miles  north  of  the  place  of  beginning 
the  4th  principal  meridian  touches  the 
base  line,  which  runs  thence  west  to 
the  Mississippi  river.  The  military 
bounty  lands  extend  9O  miles  north 
of  the  base  line.  The  northern  bound- 
ary of  Mercer  county  continued  east  to 
the  Illinois  river  marks  the  northern 
boundary  of  what  is  popularly  known 
as  the  Military  Tract.  The  territory 
thus  described  includes  Calhoun,  Pike, 
Adams,  Brown,  Schuyler,  Hancock, 
McDonough,  Fulton,  Henderson,  War- 
ren, Knox,  Peoria,  Stark  and  Mercer 
counties,  and  parts  of  Henry,  Bureau, 
Putnam,  and  Marshall  counties.  It  com- 
prises 5,36O,OOO  acres,  more  or  less, 
3,5OO,OOO  acres  of  which  were  ap- 
propriated as  bounties  in  quarter-sec- 
tion lots  to  the  non-commissioned 
officers  and  men  who  volunteered 
their  services  in  the  War  of  1812. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS-URBANA 


0112047582397 


